Solar Impulse 2 completes round-the-world trip on solar energy alone
Mobility — di Rudi Bressa
For the first time, a solar-powered aircraft has completed a round-the-world journey, flying 40,000 kilometres without fuel. The landing streamed live.
Solar Impulse 2 completes round-the-world trip on solar energy alone
For the first time, a solar-powered aircraft has completed a round-the-world journey, flying 40,000 kilometres without fuel. The landing streamed live.
They did it. Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg have realised their dream: flying around the world in a solar-powered aircraft. Two pioneers. The kind who make history. Landing in Abu Dhabi at 6.05 Italian time, the journey came to an end — 23 days of flight, 43,000 kilometres, divided into 17 legs. Solar Impulse 2 crossed the Pacific and the Atlantic. The United States, part of Europe and the Middle East. Flying by night as well, using solar energy collected by the solar panels and stored in the batteries.
Having taken off in March of last year, the solar aircraft piloted by the two Swiss pioneers thus demonstrated the potential of today's existing technology for the sustainable mobility of tomorrow.
"This is not just a first in the history of aviation; it is a first in the history of energy. I am certain that within 10 years we will see electric aircraft carrying 50 passengers on short- and medium-haul flights. But that is not enough," declared Solar Impulse founder Bertrand Piccard as he stepped out of the cockpit. "The same clean technologies used on Solar Impulse could be used on the ground, in our daily lives, and cut our CO2 emissions in half. Solar Impulse is only the beginning."
Solar Impulse 2 by the numbers
Many records were broken during this true 21st-century challenge. Among them, the record for a solo flight of 8,924 km in 5 days and 5 nights, lasting 117 hours and 52 minutes. "Flying a completely new aircraft is already difficult enough, but flying around the entire world is a true challenge. More than a demonstration, it is confirmation that these technologies are genuinely reliable and safe," underlined André Borschberg. "There is so much potential for the world of aviation: if 100 per cent solar aircraft will take longer, electric aircraft will develop more quickly in the near future."
- Distance covered: 43,041 km
- Flight hours | Days: 558 hours and 6 minutes | 23 days
- Solar energy produced: 11,655 kWh
- 13 years of design
- 17 million dollars of investment
- 17 flights, 4 continents, 2 oceans and three oceanic crossings
- Cockpit: 3.8 cubic metres
Also enthusiastic was the comment from UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon: "Solar Impulse has flown more than 40,000 kilometres without fuel, but with an inexhaustible source of energy and inspiration. This is a historic day for Captain Piccard and the Solar Impulse team, but it is also a historic day for humanity," said the UN Secretary-General.
From Icarus to the Wright Brothers. From the Italian Caproni to the Russian Muromets. Visionaries who brought humans to flight. And today it is the turn of Piccard and Borschberg, who have changed the history of aviation forever.